Story:
This is much more than a simple graphics hack to add snow. This game takes place the same year as GSC, just later in the year. It assumes that the events of GSC (the radio tower take over, the sick Pokémon at the lighthouse, all that stuff) took place that summer, so the major events will be different and more holiday themed. Since this is part of what I'm calling the "Johto Legacy", I will also include a few references to things that happened in "Pokémon Secrets and Rumours" and things that will happen in "Pokémon Spirits and Legends".

What's New:

- Physical/Special split, like the newer games have
- Ability to play as a Boy or a Girl player, chosen in the intro
- Kris as the player's friendly rival
- The player you didn't choose as an extra rival
- Major events changed to new and holiday themed ones
- Updated tilesets to give it a snowy winter feel, with Fire Red looks
- Maps updated to their designs from Heart Gold
- New Pokémon added (from newer gens, NO Fakemon)
- A completely new move, "Flame Ball" used to melt ice blocks
- Rock Climb added to certain areas
- Draco Meteor added (only available in the Dragon's Den shrine in a gift Pokémon)
- Zigzagoon and Linoone have the "Pickup" ability
- New items (Key Items, Regular Items, etc.)
- Ice sliding on frozen lakes outside, not just in Ice Path
- New locations, including: South Isle, Battle Tower, Ecruteak Shinto Shrine, and more
- Locations from Heart Gold and Crystal added: Dragon's Den Shrine, Johto Safari Zone, and more
- Restored Kanto locations, including: Viridian Forest, Pewter Museum, and more
- Some wild Pokémon location changes, some are the same
- Trainers sprites and rosters updated
- All Gym Leaders have additional Pokémon, and all of Kanto's gyms are higher levels
- Lots of events have been redone, removed, added, etc.
- Some trainer classes have been changed
- There have been changes to the Elite Four
- Viridian Gym has a different leader
- New Game Corner prizes (Johto and Kanto)
- Additional Prize Exchanges added at the Battle Tower
- Practice Battle Machines added for the Battle Tower. (They are like the ones in the old Sterling Silver, but improved)
- Something special involving the Global Terminal in Goldenrod City
- More

Trading
If you have VBA link or another emulator that supports trading, you can still trade like normal. All Pokémon that require trading to evolve will still evolve normally if traded, but they will also be able to evolve without trading as well in the ways described in the "New Evolutions" section.

Screenshots: (I will continue to update these soon once I get the new tilesets finalized)

Spoiler:

Support Banner:

Here is a banner you can put in your signatures, (on forums that have them) or you are free to make your own. I just put this together because I realized I hadn't made one!

Credits:

Spoiler:

RED - Contributed a lot of the code for the gender selection, also a few devamped tiles
Miksy91 - Taught me ASM, and was a lot of help with the routine for the Pickup ability
Tauwasser - Created the Ex Tileset patch which I used
Koolboyman - Original designer of the Physical/Special split routine
Kanzure, and the other contributors to Pokecrystal - Even though this is a hack of Gold, Pokecrystal helped me track down several various routines that I needed to modify. Sorry I talked bad about that project in the past, that was very stupid of me.
~G0LD! and Chamber - Town Map graphics
Luigi-San - Various sprites
Amvz08 - Various sprites
Pixel Eye - Various sprites
Berries Inc - Various sprites
Pia Carrot - Various sprites, Various Text
Mateo - 99% of the devamped tilesets, also primary scripter, mapper, designer, etc. Generally everything else.

Inspirations:

Spoiler:

South Isle and the Legend Festival were inspired by Pokémon: The Movie 2000.
Ecruteak Shinto Shrine was inspired by Sailor Moon.
Above Cerulean Cave was inspired by Pokémon Secrets and Rumours.
Jack's Secret Base was inspired by Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire.
Battle Tower was inspired by Pokémon Crystal, Pokémon Sterling Silver, and various Battle Frontiers.
Town and Route designs inspired by Pokémon Heart Gold & Soul Silver.
The Rival's personality was inspired by Lyra from Pokémon Heart Gold & Soul Silver, and May from Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire.
The Rival's design was inspired by Pokémon Crystal.
Vulpix appearing in Union Cave was inspired by Pokemon Brown, where Vulpix can be found in Merson Cave.

It's actually been awhile since I've seen the progress on this hack. It's really looking good Mateo and I can't wait to see what's in store for this year's release. I've always loved the fact it feels like an addition to Gold/Silver's storyline, along with Spirits and Legends.

As for new Pokemon, I've replaced Sentret and Furret with Zigzagoon and Linoone (and with the help of Miksy91, I added a cool new secret to go with them, but you'll have to play to find out haha.) I've also added 3 fakemon that were created, designed, and sprited by amvz08. I don't know how people feel about Fakemon around here, but I personally think that they are very well done and they won't hurt the feel any. These new fakemon fill the slots that were originally used by Mudkip's family in the last update. It didn't seem right to include only 1 line of Hoenn starters, and they didn't fit especially well anyway.

Mostly this new update is about events and gameplay though. Some of the maps have been tweaked a little, trainers have been changed around more, and Kanto isn't as easy as it was before. Also a lot of events have been redone that were still too similar to Gold. I know the start of the game was almost identical with the whole "Meet Oak at Mr. Pokémon's house, fight the rival in Cherrygrove" thing going on. Plus the lighthouse event was still the same and a lot of other things that should have been different were... not different. So this should help with continuity as well as giving new things to enjoy throughout the game.

EDIT: I did keep the Red Gyarados event in though, and I now have NPCs lampshading this. One in particular comes to mind who says something like "People are all going nuts about a Red Gyarados. I've seen like a dozen of 'em living here by the lake like this."

Also, Pia Carrot, there are a few more continuity hints at Spirits and Legends as well, including the player from that game's house in Cherrygrove and an NPC based on an anime character that I know we both like

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reb0rn

Say, if I'm Jewish, will I be able to play this hack without going to hell?

Absolutely. There is even a Jewish NPC in the game who talks about how much fun Hannukah is.

@Esmas - You'll want to start a new save, this one won't be fully compatible with the 2012 version. What with the added Boy/Girl option and a lot of events being changed, you might run into errors (or at the very least, end up not getting to see events because they would be marked as already having passed).
@Rocka and @Pirate Ninja - Thanks guys! Hope you all enjoy it (I'm sure you will though). Assuming nothing weird comes up, hoping to have this patch ready by the end of the month. But I'll keep everyone updated on things.